Kostroma

Kostroma was a principality at the mouth of the Kostroma River on the Volga. Vasily held it as an appanage; Moscow's Ivan I Kalita had bought it by 1337.

Novgorod river pirates sacked Kostroma in 1375, but it sheltered Moscow's princes during the sieges of 1382, 1408 and 1433. During the Time of Troubles, the Ipatiev Monastery sheltered Mikhail Romanov; a Muscovite embassy came there to offer him the Russian crown, beginning the Romanov dynasty. A fire devastated Kostroma in 1773; its streets were rebuilt in a radial plan.